My trip to the BMW museum and BMW World (?) in Munchen...

Well, had me some business in Switzerland at the beginning of this month, so while at it, I decided to visit my cousin and her hubby, who happen to live in Munich, during Oktoberfest (crazy time but that's for another post!)...

Anyway, they took me and my brother, who was along for the ride, for a little tour of BMW World and the BMW Museum...and of course, I was very happy to go along! My take on this jaunt is as follows:

Highlights:
- BMW World is COOL!! There are cars and exhibits all over the lobby. There was a snack bar where you can buy a little something to nibble on, soft drinks, coffee, and a beer if you're in the mood. There was a motorcycle rider doing stunts. There were classic and old examples of our favorite auto brand (including a 50's Isetta). There was a gift shop (more on this later). Imagine going to work in the morning and having this in the lobby of your office building!!

- On the second floor, you took a walkway that passes right by an area where, I believe, folks who ordered cars to buy in Munich can inspect them and, I'll assume, take delivery. A bucket list item for sure! You walk along a ramp, outside, and across a macadam to the museum itself.

- Inside the museum, WOW...plenty of examples for every BMW fan to drool over! Concepts, cars we can't get here but they can there, the whole she-bang. One room had nothing but roadsters from the first onto the latest. Motorcycles hang on one wall that must be 3 stories high! One room displayed all examples of M3 from the E30 on. Another had displays of the predicessors of the 5 series and each verson since. Still another had jet engines from the very early days until now. Of course, the gift shop is your last stop.

Lowlights:
- Gift shops sucked...can I HAZ a decent shirt? I was looking for something with a Roundel on it but nothing nice caught my eye. The gift shop in BMW World had half BMW-related stuff and half was crap I could get in any store. Same for the shop in the museum...also there were books galore but many of them had nothing to do with BMW!! Both shops had miniature and small scale versions of BMW models but NO E39s...WTF?

On Dec 7th 2006 I won a trip for 2 to Munich to see the museum . It was a contest put on by The International Council of BMW Clubs that I didn't remember entreing , but I won !st place . We had a great time and had a personal tour with Jorg Hubner . The museum had just opened the spring of 2008 so everything was new and fresh .
I tried to get tickets for the ring taxi for 3 weeks but the site was busy each time I tried . Ticket go on sale 1000 Mon Munich time , I was on the computer at 200 AM our time .
We had a great time and is worth a trip for any BMW guy . If I knew how to post pictures I would , but I barely know how to turn this thing on .

I did the same tours of BMW Welt, the expanded Museum and the factory tour three weeks ago. I go to Munich every three or four years, and then to Ingolstadt for the Audi equivalent. Next year, it will be Stuttgart for a return visit to both Porsche and Mercedes. In years past, I have been to Opel in Russelsheim (just a few S-Bahn stops from the Frankfurt airport) and Ford in Cologne (Koln).

The last time I was in Munich, the new Welt was about a month away from opening. This trip made it worth it. They "factory deliver" any BMW product about 140 times a day (except South Carolina-built cars to customers coming from the Americas). The museum has expanded to being almost three times bigger than before, so that was the real treat in the whole visit. The factory tour was in the evening, and seemed a bit shorter than before. If you love the new 3s, then it's a blast to see them going from a coiled roll of galvanized steel into a functioning car, 53 hours later.

All told, if you want a better tour of BMW facilities, go to Spartanburg. It's a better look and you'll see three models being built on the same line. The gift shop is about as good as in Munich, and without the Euro exchange rate, the prices are two thirds better for the same stuff. Your BMWCCA card will get you a nice discount in both SC and Munich, but you can order a beer in the BMW Welt, but not here.